I love it when reporters are winded when on camera from running through the halls of the Supreme Court, down the steps and to their camera. Politics should be like “sport” and those reporting it should have to do a little work to report the story rather than just repeat talking points by both the Republican and Democrat camps.
Here’s the spin you’ll hear all day in regards to the SCOTUS decision to mostly uphold the Affordable Care Act (they really should have picked a better name).
From Republicans “Tax, Tax, Kill Jobs. Send us money. Tax, Tax, Tax. Send us money. Obamacare, Obamacare. Job killer. Tax, tax, tax. Send us money. We must defeat. Repeal and Replace (author’s note: replace with what? still no ideas from that camp). Send us money.” Repeal, repeal, repeal (then we’ll figure out our own plan later).
One very sad part about this decision by the court is that Republicans will also beat up on Justice Roberts, when all he did was rule as according to the law and what actually is constitutional. They should be cheering Roberts for NOT being political in his decision. How nasty they’ll get because he somehow “betrayed” the party…. which is insane given he’s the Chief Justice and finally demonstrated that law is more important than politics, which this court has had been losing (even to the level of chastising the President in written opinions). Alas… it’ll happen. Stay strong Justice Roberts, you did the right thing: you objectively interpreted the law.
From Democrats “So happy, great victory, millions of Americans will be covered.” Basically, Democrats will sound like they’ve just wond a beauty pageant.
Issues still outstanding: Medicaid expansion: that part, the all or nothing imposition on the States was not upheld.
The penalty for not paying the tax issue. The talking heads are still going back and forth as to what happens if people who don’t buy health coverage and then have to pay a tax… don’t pay the tax. Is there a penalty for not paying the penalty?
Where from here? Democrats: you really need to start selling this better – like you should have 18 months ago. Time after time, when people are polled about the individual pieces of Obamacare, they like them, many by huge margins, but as soon as it’s packages as Obamacare…. then they hate it, it kills jobs, and will destroy the planet as we know it. Republicans have MUCH better PR and product branding people than Democrats do.
Republicans: You have your base who now that they are all riled by by the asinine conspiracy theory begun by one wacko blogger and picked up by the NRA that Fast & Furious was really a secrete plot for the Obama administration to pass ant-gun laws… (pause: dude… really? The point of the NRA is to make gun owners NOT look like they’re crazy for wanting to own 100 assault rifles to shoot squirrels in their backyards… NRA you need to re-visit your goals.) Now that you have your base hot and bothered, you’ll go on and on and on about tax, tax, tax, tax and basically false data about increasing debt (which is 100% NOT true, so Mitt Romney stop, once again, lying about it. ). Republicans will use words like “job killer” and claiming that some board in Washington will be standing between you and your doctor: again…. not true, but that’s what Republicans will do, then Fox will play and parrot it over and over again, and their base will believe it. (I would really appreciate it, however, if you’d stop lying about the costs of Obamacare: yes, to get it running will cost money, but once it IS running, then is SAVES money and REDUCES the deficit.)
Heath care and health insurance is very expensive in this country. It is that way because we like profits. There are just some things in this world that cannot be all about profits. That doesn’t mean I’m some wacko socialist, that’s just logic: to make something affordable for everyone in a society, it cannot be profit driven. It’s for those things that government exists.
Shoot… I have to go out and find health coverage now…. too bad there’s no public option to make it less expensive. ;)
